Pre-seed funding in 2024

Author: Peter Walker

Read time: 1 minute
Published date: February 27, 2025

The introduction of the SAFE in 2013 marked a sea change in funding to the earliest venture startups.

As of the end of last year, 86% of pre-priced capital flowed through the SAFE as opposed to the slightly more dusty convertible note.

But of course, you want more than a little history lesson. So please enjoy our recently published State of Pre-Seed covering everything we know about this embryonic startup stage.

The highlights:

Overall reduction of pre-seed activity: $716 million went to pre-seed startups in Q4, down from $965 million in Q3 and $1.2 billion in Q2. The distribution of deals also shifted towards smaller rounds.
Pre-seed funding is dispersed: While California captured 39% of pre-seed cash in 2024, New York and New Jersey took in 13% and 8%, respectively. Other states above 3% included Massachusetts, Washington, Texas, and Florida.
Steady valuation caps: Median valuation caps for post-money SAFEs have remained relatively stable, sitting at $10 million for rounds between $500,000 and $1 million.
Top metro areas: After the Bay Area and New York, the next largest hubs for pre-seed fundraising in 2024 were Los Angeles, Boston, and Austin.

The full report is worth your time, but if you'd rather watch smart commentators trade takes on the information instead, head over to replay our 2024 Venture Capital Review webinar.

Peter Walker

Author: Peter Walker

Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, focused on discovering key data and narratives across the private capital ecosystem. In a former life, he was a marketing executive for a media analytics startup and led the data visualization team at the Covid Tracking Project.